


No one from this word can save you now

by Gavi



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alien Planet, Dimension Travel, F/F, Fluff, POV Alternating, slight angst, takes place sometimes during series 12, thasmin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-29
Updated: 2020-04-15
Packaged: 2021-02-23 12:06:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23377762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gavi/pseuds/Gavi
Summary: Yaz found herself in quiet a mess. The Doctor and her friends were in danger, and she didn't knew what to do to help them. then suddenly almost like a miracle, she came across someone from the doctor's past. With her help Yaz is going to save her friends.
Relationships: The Doctor (Doctor Who)/Rose Tyler, Thirteenth Doctor/Rose Tyler, Thirteenth Doctor/Yasmin Khan
Comments: 5
Kudos: 49





	1. Chapter 1

Yazmin ran towards the TARDIS like her life depended on it. Hers didn’t but the Doctor’s did. The Doctor had a rare talent for getting into the worst situations possible. Although she herself, Ryan and Graham weren’t that different. She had said she wanted more and now she was getting more. So. Much. More.

The TARDIS stood out against the grey mountain range of the planet which’s name she had already forgotten. It wasn’t really important at the moment. She had been running for approximately an hour, hoping and praying she wasn’t followed by anyone. Though the so-called wise ruler of her planet was more interested in the doctor than her three human companions. He had knocked out the doctor with something.

They were just exploring the planet because the Doctor was curious. “A planet which is mostly stone and ash, and yet at one place civilization managed to bloom. Isn’t that worth exploring?” she had said. Well the civilization was a huge joke. The people, the aliens who looked almost like humans, a bit taller, with cat like eyes, but overall, still very human like. They were ruled by a monarch who called himself Maharaja. At first Yaz thought it was his title, but as it turns out that was his name. A tall lean man, with fair skin, golden eyes and black hair. He was supposed to be this all-knowing wise man who could never make any mistakes because he was so wise of course. Horse’s arse! The moment he learned where the doctor id from, a horrible smile crept on his face. The doctor was busy giving one of her ‘all knowing, trying to deduce history of an entire world with basically nothing’ speeches. “So you know what I think Maharaja? I think you have manipulated the poor people of this city into thinking you are some sort of …” she never finished that sentence. “oh no you don’t want to do that” she said, her voice was lousing it’s all knowing command.

The so-called royal chambers, which was actually a small room, slightly bigger than her living room back at London, with only the so-called wise ruler sitting on a makeshift throne, and his guards and councilors, if you can call them that, standing on either sides of him. The doctor and the fam were standing, the doctor was moving about, pointing and gesturing widely. She had stopped doing that right then and was standing still at one spot. “You really don’t want to do this.” She murmured and then imminently collapsed on the ground. Yaz was by her side the next moment. “Doctor” she said. Ryan and Graham were standing right behind her. “What happened to her?” Ryan asked, panic visible in his voice. Graham put a hand on his shoulder. “I… I don’t know. Doctor” Yaz said failing to keep panic out of her voice as well. “What did you do to her?” Ryan yelled. The ruler gestured to his guards, one of them pulled Yaz away from the doctor. She saw another two force Ryan and Graham out of the room. She tried to get rid of the guard holding her by kicking him, he grunted but didn’t let go. The ruler walked up to the doctor and keeled in front of her to take a closer look. A door opened behind her and she heard Ryan’s voice. It was muffled and she couldn’t make out what he said. She wasn’t paying much attention in any case. She was focused on the Doctor.

Only now she realized there was a faint white-ish fog that was filling up the room. That’s what had knocked the Doctor out. “Don’t you dare hurt her” she yelled. She tries to fight off the guard as he dragged her out of the room. “You can’t help her now” the ruler said. “No one in this universe can help her now”. She could almost hear him laugh like a mustache twirling villain.

She was dragged out and put in a cell beneath the palace. It was just a huge cage really. Ryan and Graham were in the cage right in front of her. “you okay?” Graham asked her. She nodded and then said “but I’m not so sure about the Doctor”. Ryan asked, “what are we going to do?”. She didn’t know what to say to that. what were they going to do?

She was a cop, and a damn good one at that. Its because she had learned to think like a thief. She pulled two hair clips from her hair and started picking the lock. She had a little difficulty picking it from the wrong side, and as she unlocked the door, she felt a clip break. “Go” Graham said “come back for us later” Ryan nodded. She had to hide from the guards a couple of times but overall getting out of the palace was too easy. The whole city was pitiful at best. So human like, so advanced and yet somehow simultaneously really backwards. Doctor had told her that in the future humans got along with humanoid cats, she wondered if that is what resulted in the creation of these creatures. She was certain they had human origins.

She knew she wouldn’t be able to rescue the doctor on her own. She tried to find the keys or something else to get Ryan and Graham out, but she couldn’t. She decided it was better to get out of that place before anyone saw her. that’s how she had made her way to the TARDIS. She sat on the stairs in front of the console, tying to come up with a plan. She heard the TARDIS make the sound it usually makes. She had seen the Doctor talk to it. it wasn’t completely impossible that TARDIS was alive. She had very few options, so she though before she went digging into the unknown parts of the TARDIS in order to find something to rescue her friends, she would catch her breath for a minuet here and ask advice from the time machine just by some off chance it can hear her.

She recited the events of the day, complained about the Doctor, something she had never done before, and then confessed something. “It’s really pathetic” she said getting up. She moved around the console the way Doctor does, and rested her hand on the beam in the middle, also the way Doctor does. “They caught us off guard, that’s all. Because there is no way that pathetic fraud and his lackeys could ever capture the Doctor. He said no one in this universe can save her, well I don’t believe that. I’m going to save her. whatever I have to do I’ll do it. If I have to go beyond this universe, I’ll do it”. TARDIS made a noise, louder than it has done before. “You have any suggestions for me?’ Yaz said in a teasing voice. TARDIS made that noise again, glowing a little this time and she realized the were moving.

“Stop” she yelled. “Stop we can’t leave the doctor is still here, go back” she said frantically. The TARDIS stopped after a few seconds. She ran to the door and opened it. She was relived to see the same ash covered plant. She sighed in relief. “What was that about?” she said out loud. She wasn’t expecting an answer but she got one anyways. “You tell me” a voice said.

She turned around and saw the Doctor standing near the console. However, a moment later she realized it was someone else entirely. The woman was white and blonde, and she was about the Doctor’s height but beyond that she looked very different. Her face was slightly longer, she was wearing a black leather jacket and a pink tee-shirt underneath it. She had her arms crossed and she looked firm, but not dangerous. She was looking around. “Who are you?” Yaz asked. She closed the door and went up to the woman. “You first” the woman said.

Yaz considered her for a moment. She really didn’t look dangerous. She decided to give her a vague answer. “I’m a traveler.” She said. The woman rolled her eyes. She was done looking around. “where’s the Doctor?” she asked. Yaz stared at her for a moment. “huh?’ she said. “We are in the TARDIS” the woman said, walking around just as Doctor does, just like she had a few moments ago. “It looks different but it’s still the TARDIS” she said. “Huh?” Yaz said again. She took a step away from the woman. She didn’t look dangerous but that doesn’t mean she wasn’t one. She seem to know the Doctor and people from the Doctor’s past had a tendency to be a bit odd to say the least. The woman turned to face Yaz and said, “and I don’t think you are the Doctor, no offence. Because the Doctor would have recognized me”. So she was from the Doctor’s past. “who are you?” Yaz asked. The woman gave her an exasperated look. Right, her first. “I’m Yasmin. I’m a friend of Doctor’s” she said. The woman nodded and said, “Yeah I figured that much”.

She looked around once more and sighed, like she was remembering something. “I’m also a friend of the Doctor. I use to travel through time and space too. That was seven years ago, I don’t know how long it’s been for our mutual friend.” She said. Yaz knew the Doctor had other companions, other fams, but still seeing this person right here was still strange. “So I take it the Doctor is in trouble?” the woman asked. “yeah, big time” Yaz said. “I was just talking to…. Doctor says it’s alive, so I was just talking to the TARDIS, asking for advice, I didn’t expect this to happen.” The girl nodded as if she understood. Maybe she did. “I’m Rose Tyler” she said offering Yaz her hand to shake. Yaz took it. “You are real” she said. “what?” Rose asked. “Nothing it’s just…” Yaz stammered, sheepishly. She shouldn’t have said that. Rose was looking at her, expecting an answer. “The way Doctor talks about you, I just thought you were an imaginary friend or something” she said, regretting every word. Rose raised her eyebrows.

“And what does the Doctor say? You know what, let’s find him first and then I’ll ask him myself” Rose said. “you mean find her” Yaz said. She knew the Doctor has been a man in the past at some point, and Rose seem to be from around that time. She wasn’t sure how Rose will react to this, or if she would even understand. She herself didn’t understand what regeneration was. Rose corrected herself without hesitation. “we will find her, and then I’ll ask her myself” she said. “But first” she continued, “I think I’ve missed a lot, why don’t you fill me in” Yaz nodded.

Time was ticking by and she was worried sick about the Doctor, but for some reason she trusted Rose. She somehow knew Rose would help her no matter what. She would have plenty of time to figure out how she had gotten her, right now she was hurriedly explaining what happened, so that can be on their way to rescue the Doctor. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's get the gender pronounce out of the way.  
> When Nine, Ten and Tentoo are mentioned or talked about the pronouns used are he/him, and while talking about Thirteen they are she/her. That's pretty obvious.  
> While talking about the Doctor in general and not a specific regeneration, the pronouns used are singular they/them pronoun.  
> I hope it's not too confusing.

Ever since she was nineteen, Rose has found herself in some of the strangest situations. Involuntarily Jumping Dimensions because a friend of the Doctor has asked for help to the TARDIS from someone beyond the universe was not that bad. On a scale of one to ten she would rate it as a nine. Thing s were never just normal in her life. They were always at ten, sometimes even more than that. So, she was back in her old universe, and the Doctor’s life was in danger, things could be worse. Getting back was second on her list of priorities, helping the Doctor was first. In any life, in any universe, she would always help the Doctor.

Rose knew the doctor could be secretive. There was so much in their past to share. Hundreds of years and countless people. There was a time when she was afraid that she would be nothing more than a footnote in her Doctor’s story. Her Doctor, the meta-crisis Doctor has told her about some of his old friends, and she knew so, so many more went unspoken, unmentioned. She wasn’t sure what and how much the Doctor has told Yazmin, but she feared it was something strange. The way Yazmin kept looking at her was making her uneasy.

“What is the point of this?” Yasmin asked. Rose could tell she was worried, but they need to be prepared before they went blazing in to save the Doctor. She had her fair share of going straight for the trouble and barely surviving, but in all those times she knew what she was getting into, right now she didn’t. She had told that to Yasmin but it didn’t help her anxiety. She had told her where they were and what happened, all in a rush, and Rose was still trying to wrap her head around the situation. The TARDIS has changed a lot since she had last been here. With help of Yazmin they had found an old sonic device, not a screwdriver, more like a mini scanner and a couple of Torchlights. She was rummaging around in the supply room to find something else useful while Yazmin was standing in the doorway growing more and more impatient by the minute. “Just hold on a second will ya?” she said. She found an old psychic paper, that was something. Before they set on rummaging Rose had made Yazmin change into something that wasn’t torn and bandaged the scratches, she had gotten on her knees and palms. Yazmin announced it was a waste of time every step of the way. Rose though she heard her growl.

“Okay fine, let’s go” she said. Yazmin looked relieved. They had come a long way inside the TARDIS and she hoped they wouldn’t get lost. “So you said they looked like Humans bur aren’t?” Rose asked. “Yeah” Yazmin said, “There is something off about them. They look like halfway between humans and cats.”. That wasn’t completely out of the ordinary. “And this wise man you say, what’s his deal?” Rose asked. Yazmin shrugged. “Don’t know. Doctor said he wasn’t really a prophet, he was scamming people of these planets, and then she got knocked out.” Yazmin told her. “He mostly is” Rose told her. “There is no such things as magic, only Aliens and time travelers. If there is anything magical happening, there is a good chance it’s Alien or a scam, or both.” She continued. “Yeah, that checks out” Yazmin agreed.

They got to the doors and Yazmin opened them to show a huge grey screen. She stepped out into it and Rose decided to follow despite her doubt. When she got out, she realized it was smoke, coming from all sides but it wasn’t suffocating them, it was part of the atmosphere. The air was almost black filled with dust. It was hard to see the sky but it looked dark. The planet was somehow both hot and cold at the same time. There were jagged stones and small hills surrounding them. There was one single source of light coming from the distance. The doctor was trapped there. No more than a couple of hours ago Yazmin Khan had made her way to the safety of TARDIS through ash and stones, and now she was in a hurry to go back to save her friends. She didn’t expect anything else from a friend of the Doctor.

She had so many questions running through her mind. She was happy living her life with her Doctor. She loved him, he was familiar yet new, exciting and comforting. She had everything she wanted; she was happy. But every once in a while, she would wonder about the other Doctor, the one she was trying to rescue at the moment. The one who couldn’t say three simple words. She had also wondered about Donna and Martha, about Mickey and Jack. There was no way to know about them, until now. She wondered if the Doctor has ever told her new friends about them. She had told them about her so maybe. Yazmin was focused only on saving the Doctor and her friends but it was going to take almost an hour to reach there. So she asked, “Does the Doctor talks about anyone else?”

“She talks about a lot of people to be honest. I don’t remember much of them” Yazmin said.

“You remembered me” Rose said. Yazmin shrugged. “It’s different with you” she said.

“How so?” Rose asked.

“Well, she always says Rose would know what to say, or you know what my friend Rose would have done if she was here? Or this is where Rose would say. And I thought Rose wasn’t real, that she was, I mean you were just someone she made up in her head. I asked who Rose was and she just said an old friend from a different life. I didn’t push.” Yazmin said.

“Does she ever talk about anyone else? Mikey or Donna or Martha or Sarah Jane or Jack?” Rose asked, probably knowing the answer. About a decade ago, she was afraid the Doctor would forget her someday, now she wished they did. She lived without him for no more than three years and that was hard enough, so if the Doctor did love her, she wouldn’t want them to go through that for the rest of eternity. She knew they didn’t like to look back; she knew Yazmin would know nothing, but she had to ask.

“No” Yazmin answered. As she expected. “but” Yazmin continued after a second, “I met Jack once. He is something else.” Rose smiled at that. “You mean he flirts with everything alive?” she asked playfully. Yazmin chuckled at that ever so slightly. “Was he part of your fam?” she asked. Fam. That’s a nice word. “You can say that.” Rose said. She could tell Yazmin had questions of her own. “Go on then, ask me what ya wanna know” Rose said. Yazmin looked a bit embarrassed at that.

“did you knew her when she was a man?” Yazmin asked her first question. “yes.” Rose said. Yazmin had a lot of questions. Something had happened with the Doctor, everything about her past was now on a need to know basis. She had shared very little. Maybe Yazmin didn’t know the Doctor for that long but the concerned expression that never left Yazmin’s face told her otherwise. Rose told her about the Doctor with leather jacket, about Jack and Darleks, she told her about the one with great hair and Mikey and Sarah Jane and parallel words and Cybermen. She told her about Donna and Martha and the Master, which she already knew about, and finally she told her about her Doctor just as they reached the border of the city. There were some working street lights, and some houses and shops there had buzzing batteries hanging from the roofs that had a dull blue glow, but despite all that everything was still very dark. Rose turned off the torchlight in her hand.

Yazmin was about to enter through gates that no one was guarding. Rose stopped her. Everything Yazmin has told her was going through her mind in a loop along with some of her own memories and some stuff the Doctor has told her. _what was it? what was it?_ “what?” Yazmin asked. “Something isn’t right, hold on I’m getting there” she said. Yazmin gave her a strange look and Rose could tell why. That was something the Doctor would say. At least she still did that, maybe somethings really didn’t change. “You look a bit like her” Yazmin said. Rose didn’t knew how to respond to that. So she didn’t. There were pieces in her mind that almost fit together but some were still missing. The Doctor would know what they were.

“So” she began. “We know we are in the future right? I think we are really far into the future. Maybe this is earth, maybe it’s not, not really that important right now, but those people use to be humans. I mean their ancestors. Once Doctor and I went to this future planet where cats were nurses in a hospital, and he told me that humans sorta mingled with other species as we spread across the galaxy, so I think people here are part humans part cats and part something else.” She knew Yazmin would have figured out that much by now. She indeed had. Yazmin nodded and said, “The wise man is called Maharaja, but it’s not really a name of a person. It means king or emperor. So maybe people started naming their children emperor in the future or maybe it’s a fake name he chose for himself.”. it was Rose who nodded this time. “And look at this city” she said gesturing with one hand, “What do you see?”. Yazmin locked and them said, “It looks like it’s made out of tin. It looks like a bunch of people did a really bad job of DIY housing projects here.”

“Exactly” Rose said. then she added, “DIY housing projects?”

“We saw it on a planet few weeks back” Yazmin said. Rose could see wheels spinning in her head too. “All people move out of earth eventually.” Rose said, “they go to better places, to new earth and paradise planet. What happens to those who can’t?” Something passed over Yazmin’s face, something like fear. She looked up, then she looked side to side and turned in three sixty degree. “we been here for half a day, and there is no sun” she said. Rose realized what she was getting at, but there could be other explanations. “Maybe it takes longer here” she said. Yazmin nodded but she wasn’t convinced. “Yeah but look everyone is going about their business and they were going on about their business when we first got her.” she said. there was no sun here. “From the looks of it, this planet has to be covered in volcanos.” Rose said. Yazmin nodded. Both of them were thinking the same thing. People can’t live on a place like this.

“Huh!” Yazmin gasped. “What is it?” Rose asked. “This Maharaja guy didn’t look like the rest of his people. He was too tall, too white. No one else is like that around her. he could be a human or part human but I think he might be something else.” Yazmin said. conspiracy, why not. Everything was Aliens or time travel anyways. Sometimes both. “I don’t like this whole thing.” Rose said. “Agreed” Yazmin said. “We will go in there, find your human friends first and them find the Doctor. She must have figured out what was really going on, so she is a bigger threat, and we would probably need help getting her out. Finding your other friends first would be easier. As soon as we find her, she is going to try to fix this.” Rose said.

“Yeah” Yazmin said, “she knew what was really going on. He knocked her out before she could explain. He wanted something from her. The way he looked at her Rose, it was clear he was going to hurt her, or worse.” Rose took her hand in hers. “Don’t worry Yazmin, we are going to find her.” she said. Yazmin nodded. “Yaz. My friends call me Yaz.” She said. Rose let go of her hand and smiled. “Well then Yaz, let’s go rescue our friend” She said, and then they entered the city. 


	3. Chapter 3

Even when she was escaping from the city, Yazmin realized that the guards were more human-ish than their leader. Most of them were also tiered, in fact the only ones who could actually put up a fight against them were the ones that had dragged her and her friends out of the room. There were people in the city, but they were barely getting by, they were skinny, too skinny. The planet, with all of its people looked dead. Rose had also noticed it, but for the time being she was quiet. Finding Graham and Ryan was easy.

“Yaz” Graham said, “What are you doing here? I thought you were going to find the Doctor” He was sitting on the ground with Ryan. Both of them got up and came to the gate of the cell. “I don’t know where she is, I’m getting you two out first.” Rose had dug up a Swiss knife from her pocket and was working on the locks. Yaz made a note of that. “Who’s this?” Ryan asked. “This” Yaz said with an emphasis, “is Rose. Rose Tyler.” Ryan had had the look on his face she was hoping to see. “She’s real?” Graham asked. Rose looked up that, then she turned to Yaz and said, “You really weren’t kidding ha?”. “Nope” Yaz said. Rose had gotten through the locks and she opened the rusty door as noiselessly as possible. Her friends got out. Ryan was looking at the Doctor’s old friend as if she was some sorta robot. “did you find her hidden in the TARIS or somethin’?” he asked. “or something” Yaz said. “I’m serious Yaz, how did she get here?” he asked.

There wasn’t enough time to explain all this. It’s been nearly four hours since the Doctor was captured, and that Man’s grin was haunting Yaz’s thoughts. “It’s a long story” Rose said. “listen, I trust her, at least trust her enough to know she wants to help and know her enough to know she can help. I’ll explain everything later, I promise, but right now we need to find the Doctor.” Yaz said. Ryan didn’t look entirely convinced but he nodded, Graham however seemed on bored. “So what’s the plan here” he asked. “Now” Rose said, handing Graham a torchlight, “we divide and concur. This place is huge, and all four of us sticking together would be noticeable. This place is falling to shreds, if we keep a low profile, no one will notice us.” She dug into her jacket pocket and produced something that looked like a smartphone, but a little bulkier. She had insisted on digging through TARDIS’s store room before coming here, and there she had found this. Yaz was too worried about her friends to ask her what it was. she did ask that now. “What is that?” she said out loud. “it’s a sonic scanner, kinda like the screwdriver the Doctor uses, does she still use it?” Yaz nodded, Rose continued “like that but less… um efficient. It will however be able to detect a Gallifreyan. That’s how we find her.” she handed it to Ryan. “if neither of us can find her we will meet here in couple of hours, sounds good?” Yaz asked them. All three of them nodded. The got out of the basement, there were three ways to go from there. One was the way they has sneaked in, one was the way to the _royal chambers_ and one was un-known. Yaz chose the way they didn’t knew and dragged Rose with her, Ryan and Graham went in the opposite direction, to the _royal chambers_.

A few moments later Yaz realized something. “How are we going to find the Doctor? Ryan has the sonic detector” she told Rose. She saw Rose smile in the faint light of the torch. She handed it to Yaz, and pulled the sleeve of left hand to reveal a complicated digital watch. “Everyone on my team has one of these. Everything we need to know about Aliens and Cybermens, we store in these. All known Aliens on my earth, including time lords. My Doctor did it as a precaution, but it’s going to come in handy for the first time right now.” She said. they started walking again. “I don’t know” Yaz said, “something like this could come in handy when the Doctor get’s lost in the crowd”

“Or sees something shiny and gets distracted” Rose added.

“Or you know, one second you are talking” Yaz said, “and then you turn around” Rose said, “And she’s just not there!” Yaz finished. They both laughed. The hallway was narrow and empty, with metal floor and metal walls, with only three doors at the far end being visible, so their laughter echoed for a bit. But it mixed with something else, another laughter, a male laughter. Yaz and rose looked at each other. The laughter was coming from the far end of the hallway. Yaz was about to run towards it but Rose caught her hand, pulled her back and whispered, “Stealth remember?”. Yaz freed herself and gave Rose an exasperated look, “What stealth? He has probably heard us anyways.

Rose sighed but let her approach. There was an overall noise coming from the door at the far end of the hallway. There were doors on either side of it, adjoining it. one of them was locked shut, other was closed but unlocked. Just as they reched the door, the commotion inside increased, and Yaz heard movement behind it. she knew it was going to be open any moment now. She made a quick decision, opened the unlocked door with her shoulder while pulling Rose in with her other hand.

They had only a couple seconds to take it all in. In the light of the torch, there were only a few things visible. A surgical table with clasp, a cupboard full of jars, and a desk and a chair. They heard a door open and close, they heard someone’s voice. It was a man’s voice, but it didn’t belong to the Maharaja guy. The voice got louder. “Hide” she whispered to Rose. Both of them dashed behind the desk, and Yaz turned off the torch just as the door opened. Yaz saw a man, who looked far more human to be Maharaja, walk in, swearing. He was talking to himself. He had one of those dim blue light, and in that she could read the name on his badge. It said Shaha. Just Shaha, a surname. Definitely descended from earth. As he started to rummage through jars, Yaz could make out what he was saying, “…. Well then where are they huh? If she can’t help me stop him then we are all going to die. How can she bloody help use when she needs to be rescued herself? I should have never gotten my hopes up in the first place, we are all going to…” his words faded out as he walked out of the room, closing the door behind him, and to Yaz’s horror, locking it behind him.

She switched on torch and from the look on Rose’s face she had heard the man too. She got up and went to the door, Yaz was right behind her. The door didn’t budge. “Can you open it from the inside?” Yaz asked. “I can try” Rose said, but she didn’t sound very confident. She fidgeted with it for a couple of minutes, then she got up, frustrated. “Let’s take a look around” she said. It wasn’t a good idea. There were a few jars with brains, some humans, some not. But a lot of jars had bit of brain, they looked… they looked… eaten. Rose sighed, and Yaz looked away in disgust. She could still hear noises from the other side and she could even make out the Doctor’s voice but she couldn’t make what she was saying. But she was alive, she was in one piece, it was something. “I wish I could hear what she is saying” Yaz said. Rose put a hand on her shoulder. “I have an idea” she whispered. She dug into her pocket once again and took out a bit of psychic paper. Yaz didn’t understand. “Doctor once told me a story. He went to this planet with Martha, a friend of his, and she came up with the idea of giving people the psychic paper to hold, who are under alien control, so even if they can’t talk, their thoughts would be projected on it. There are some beings who can actively project their thoughts on it. so maybe, just maybe, with luck we can see what the Doctor is thinking.” Rose said and held the paper against the wall.

“Doctor?” she asked. Yaz joined her. “Doctor?” she asked as well.

 _I just need to get to him_ appeared on the paper. Yaz smiled. Then the words were replaced by another words. _Time, it’s been four hours, and nine hundred and seventy-two second since first sedative, four thousand, two hundred and eighty-seven seconds since second sedative, and two hundred and seventy four seconds since the third, so I have about one thousand, eight hundred seconds give or take tree hundred of consciousness left._

“Why is she like this?” Rose asked, clearly, she had seen something like this. Yaz did the calculations in her head, she said, “she has half an hour of consciousness left, give or take five minutes.” She said. “Which means we have less than thirty minuets to get out of her, get in there, hope that the leader of this world wouldn’t be there with his guards, and get her out of there. Could be worse.” Rose said. Yaz understood why the Doctor was friends with her. things were appearing on the psychic paper faster and faster. Yaz only spotted a few things. _I underestimated that Nirbud’dha_ and my _fam is probably up to something stupid by now._ When it became too fast that the paper tuned back with all the words Rose too it off the wall. “I’m gonna try the lock again” she said. as she was about the kneel in front of the door, it unlocked and the same man as before walked in. They had no time to hide.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had originally planned three chapters but it was getting too long, so I'm breaking this one up into two, the rest of this I'll update in next two or three days.  
> I realized a lot of people wouldn't know how to pronounce the word Nirbud'dha. It's pronounced Ni-ra-boo-da-dha.


	4. Chapter 4

The man was staring at them. He was waring a guard uniform, but unlike other guards he could put up a fight against them. But Rose had heard him and if there is one thing about the doctor that would never change, it would be their belief in people’s good nature. The man was about to say something, Rose moved forward quickly and put a hand on his mouth. She saw Yaz come forward as well. “Hello there Mr. Shaha, I’m Yaz, I’m a friend of the Doctor, so is she.” She said. The man relaxed ever so slightly. Rose removed her hand from his mouth. “She said her friends would not give up, I didn’t believe her.” the man said. “Well we are here” Rose said, “can you help us get her out?”. Rose could see that Mr. Shaha wasn’t so certain. She had seen this before. When you meet the Doctor, you want to trust them, you feel like you can trust them, but you don’t understand why. Mr. Shaha wanted to trust the Doctor, but he wasn’t sure if he could. “Can she do it?” he asked. “Can she get rid of Maharaja and get us out of this planet?”. “Yes” Rose and Yaz said in unison.

Mr. Shaha took a deep breath and sighed. “I have all the keys to the rooms, I can leave the room unlocked, but Maharaja would need a reason to go out. But he is too occupied with your Doctor to care about anything else.” He said. So they needed a distraction. It wasn’t impossible to create, though they had about twenty minutes, so what can explode in twenty minutes? She turned to Yaz to ask for her advice, but Yaz had a very guilty expression on her face. “I might have an idea. And Graham and Ryan are going to hat me for it.” she said. Rose understood what she was suggesting, it wasn’t ideal, but it was the only thing they had. She nodded. “Our other friends would be in the Royal chambers, tell your leader that the captives have escaped.” Yaz said. Mr. Shaha nodded. “Go in there in five minutes.” He said and left the room, shutting the door.

“Your friends will be fine.” Rose whispered putting a hand on Yaz’s shoulder. “As soon as we rescue her, we will go and free them.” She said. “I have another idea.” Yaz said. The plan was simple enough, but Rose knew the Doctor would not follow through it. They heard the door open and close; they heard the voice of Maharaja get smaller and smaller until it faded away. Then they got out of the room, and into the other, where the Doctor was.

After years of wondering and worrying about the other Doctor, she was seconds away from seeing her. She was aware of how loudly her heart was pounding. The entered the room and there she was. Her hand and legs, and her neck were bound to the table. But she was still muttering something, she was still trying to break free. Rose only took a couple of steps into the room. This room was just a bigger version of the one they were trapped in. It had a couple of flickering blue lights hanging from the ceiling, with more jars and more tables. She gave her knife to Yaz and pretended to examine the room, but the only thing she could see and hear at the moment was her other Doctor. Yaz went to her, she almost ran. “Doctor, I’m here” she said. “Yaz!” the Doctor said too excitedly. And Rose finally realized that whatever this man had given her had her a little buzzed. The straps were made out of leather like material and with a little efforts Yaz managed to cut them all off. The Doctor sat up abruptly and got to her feet. “oh Yaz, you won’t believe what this Nirbud’dha is up to. And we are going to stop him. We are gonna go find shaha and…” she stopped talking. She had turned around and finally spotted Rose.

She was holding both of Yaz’s arms with both of her hands. She dropped them and took a step towards Rose. She closed her eyes, shook her head and opened them again, blinking. She turned to Yaz and asked her, “Do you see her too?”. Yaz had a faint smile on her lip. She nodded. The Doctor looked back at Rose. Rose smiled and took a step towards her. “Rose” the Doctor said. “Hi” she said. there was so much more to say, but right now wasn’t the time for it. “I hate to ruin the moment but we have to go find Ryan and Graham. They are going to kill me” Yaz said. “huh?” Doctor said, “why is that?” Doctor didn’t even let her say long story, she just continued, “Never mind that, they won’t stay mad, I have to find something that will keep me from passing out in about seven hundred and eighty seconds, and there’s nothing here that can work.”. “Thirteen Minutes.” Yaz translated. “We can find something in the other room” Rose offered. Yaz looked restless, Rose couldn’t blame her. She turned towards the Doctor and hugged her. “I’m so glad your are in one piece” she said. Then she walked up to Rose and whispered, “I’m gonna go down there, and fill them in. Stay with her and when she’s okay, meet us down there.”. Rose nodded, “be careful” she said. Then Yaz left and she was alone with her Doctor.

“Hi” she said again awkwardly. “Help me find some time lord adrenaline well ya” she said. They went into the other room, and Rose realized the torchlight was with Yaz. She knew the Doctor could see in the dark, but she couldn’t. There was a light switch in the room, but didn’t turn on anything. So she had little choice but to stand in the doorway and watch the Doctor rummage around the selves, telling a story from another lifetime when something similar had happened. Rose wasn’t surprised in the slightest. She had never heard that story. Her doctor did tell her a lot of stories from his past, and he never repeated any. He would mention people, a lot of people and describe them as the most wonderful people he had ever met. When the story was over, those people despaired. Sometimes he mentioned them in other stories, she had heard a couple about a girl named Ace, but never outside of that. How many lifetimes will it take to hear about all the people and all the places the Doctor had seen? How long will it take to know about everyone and everything they had been?

The moment Rose had seen her face, heard her voice, she knew it was the Doctor. She checked off a name off her list. Rose remember meeting some peculiar people who throughout her life before she met the Doctor, people who had left an impression, and she could never understand why. Like the bloke she mate on new year’s. After she understood what Regeneration was, she had made a list. The crazy bowtie librarian, the grumpy old man, the scary sword lady and the sweet blonde Woman. There was something more about the sweet blonde woman, she was missing something about that memory.

The Doctor had mixed some stuff from a few vials. “This won’t last long but few hours is better than nothing, right Rose?”. Rose didn’t say anything. She waited for the Doctor to come back to her senses. “Well then.” The Doctor said a few second after drinking that concoction. She slowly looked up. Rose couldn’t see her properly, but she knew the Doctor could see her very well. “Rose.” She said again. “long time no see.” She added after a few seconds od staring. Rose smiled. “Yeah well, I’ve been busy.” She said. She couldn’t see but she knew the Doctor was smiling. “How are you here?” the Doctor asked. “Your friend asked for help from TARDIS. The TARDIS gave her me.” Rose said. The Doctor came closer. Rose was right, she was smiling. “and what did Yaz whispered to you before she left?” the Doctor asked. “To get you down in the holding cell.” Rose told her.

Even though it was dark, Rose knew the was and she could have easily navigated, considering they just have to go straight ahead. But when the Doctor offered her, her hand, Rose took it. They kept a fast peace but didn’t run. Rose couldn’t help but remember the first time they had met. When they reached the staircase leading down to the basement, they heard people talking. Rose recognized Ryan’s voice, the one who didn’t fully trusted her. Rose wanted to hide somewhere on this level, there was a lot of scrap metal and other junk on the way Rose and Yaz had sneaked in, they could have easily hid there, but before she could say, the Doctor dragged her downstairs. Rose thought it would be very amusing to see Yaz and Doctor disagree on something, who would win that tug of war? The Doctor probably but you never know. Something else tugged at the memory she had of this Doctor from years ago. It went away as they reached downstairs and the voice of Maharaja was audible to her. They hid behind the wall of the staircase, barely, and Rose could see the top of Yaz’s head, hiding behind a bunch of scrap metal. The Maharaja was saying, “… and because of that, I’m going to kill both of you. But before that, I will find that brat, and make you watch as I eat her brain, and then I’ll make you watch as I kill your Doctor. And then I’ll kill you two, just for fun.” As goosebumps rose on her skin, she felt the Doctor hold her hand once again. She squeezed it. Something, from the moment she saw this city was bothering her. She had started to piece it all together. The Maharaja walked out very angrily, without seeing them. Rose had her first glance at him and something didn’t look right. He didn’t look like a person. He didn’t look whole. As soon as he was out of sight Rose and the Doctor stood up, Yaz got up almost immediately after that and all three of them went inside. Mr. Shaha was there too, and he looked very restless. 

Yaz handed Rose her swiss knife, Rose took it but didn’t do anything. The doctor already had her sonic screwdriver out. It looked very different, absolutely nothing like the one her Doctor used. But it was still sonic, and it got Ryan and Graham out of the cell once again. “Shaha” The doctor turned to him and spoke were urgently, “He’s going to find out that I’m not there and he is going to go nuts, so are you with me? Do you trust me?”. Mr. Shaha looked at Yaz and then Rose and then back at the Doctor again. He said, “I do. For some reason, I do.” He walked out in a rush. The Doctor was examining the cage. “this should do” she said. She looked around for a while and grabbed Rose’s wrist at last. “Is that what I think it is?” The Doctor asked. “How would I know?” Rose said, “but if you mean it’s sonic, then yeah.” She took off her watch and gave it to her. “this would work” the Doctor said, “but I need a little bit more. I had an old scanner like this in the TARDIS, but we can’t go get it now.” Yaz looked at Rose at that. “would this do?” Yaz said as she reached into Ryan’s jacket. “hey” he protested but let her take out the sonic detector. “Yes, that’s the one.” She said. then she turned to Ryan and asked him, “but why do you have this? It’s not very convenient to carry. Not like my sonic.” Ryan pointed at Rose and said, “she gave it to me.” The Doctor didn’t say anything, she smiled and started rummaging with the devices.

“can someone please explain what’s going on?” Graham asked. “I would like an explanation as well” Ryan said. “A long time ago, there were this primitive species called Nirbud’dah. When humans went out into the universe, and inhabited other planets, they also inhabited the planet where these creatures lived. They were small grey animals with sharp teeth who mostly hunted in the wields. But you lot wanted the wields of that planet too. So humans invaded their territory. In response they attacked humans. At first people thought they were dumb, that’s why they are called Nirbud’dah. Its an old Sanskrit word that means someone who has no intelligence of their own. But people soon realized that if they ate other animals’ brains, they can absorb all the intelligence of that animal. They became out of control, set out to kill everyone on that planet and beyond. They were a huge problem for three thousand years. But then people realized the more they ate, the more unstable they became.” She handed Rose’s watch to Rose and the sonic device to Ryan. She switched on her sonic, frowned and snatched it from their hands and started to fidget with them again. “So how this one they get here?” Yaz asked. “and how are we going to stop them?” Rose asked. “good question” the Doctor said without looking at them. “This planet was a tourist attraction, home to over three thousand active volcanoes, orbiting a black hole, and completely unsuitable for life. This city was a tourist base, made so that people can come here for sight seeing, terrible idea really.” The Doctor’s new friends looked at each other. It was Graham who spoke, “then why did we come here exactly?” The doctor shrugged. “oh you are safe with me. Safe-ish. Anyway this Nirbud’dah came here like a hundred years ago, killed their supervisor, and made it so that no one can get out of the dome. See all humans in the future have these chips in their head, and he knew how to hack them. So he has everyone under control, and started killing off all aliens who came here. He chaned a bit with them. Few years later some humans started to resist his control for short amount of time, so since tourists stopped coming here, he started to murder people. I thought he had just manipulated the people into thinking he was this ultra smart all knowing creature. But he was just simply mind controlling them.” She said. She handed the sonic divices to Ryan and Rose again. Turned on her own sonic and smiled. “As for how to defeat them, every being has a frequency, and if I produce a counter frequency to that, I can potentially kill someone. But Nirbud’dha’s have more than one frequency, so we would need at least three to even disable them.” She said.

Mr. Shaha came in running. We tried to hold him off as much as we can.” He said panting. Rose, Ryan stand on either side of the cage.” She said as she opened the cage door and went inside it. Graham stood behind Ryan and Yaz came to stand next to Rose. The Maharaja came running in. He was followed by a couple of guards but they were wounded and slow. He was grinding his theeth, and Rose could see that they were like the theeth of a crocodile. “do you know how much knowledge how much power I would have if I got you? You are mine!” he growled. She came at the Doctor with alarming speed. “Now” she yelled. Rose and Ryan pressed the buttons at the same time just as the Nirbud’dha entered the cage. He lost all of his bearings. He put is hands to his head and fell to his knees screaming. Rose felt Yaz’s hand on her shoulder. His skin rapidly started changing colours, he turned red, then yellow with brown spots, then green with blue scales, then a fain purple, and then finally grey. He stopped screaming fell on the ground, most probably unconscious. 

Mr. Shaha was first to cheer. The other guards joined him. Yaz shook Rose by the shoulders. Rose turned to her with a grin on her face, Yaz was smiling too. She pulled Rose into a hug, Rose gladly hugged her back. She turned around and went toward Ryan. “We would make a god team you know” she said to him. “Yeah, you could say that.” he said. there was no bitterness in it. She held up her hand for high five, and thankfully he did. “Alright fam” the Doctor said coming out of the cage, “our work is not done here yet.” She was right of course, all these people stranded here needed a way off this planet. But before she could say anything, Ryan went and hugged her. “you made us worry so much” he said. Graham joined him, and so did Yaz after a second. She looked at Rose and gestured to join in as well. She obliged. The bad guy was defeated, the Doctor was alive. They can spare a few minutes to celebrate that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I need better management skills. I'm adding an epilogue for the goodbyes.


	5. epilogue

The city was made out of junk. The spare parts of spaceships and the tourist base combined. The Nirbud’dah who called himself Maharaja wanted to live out a fantasy of knowing everything about everything and ruling the world one day. He was now stranded in an empty city made out of scrap metal on a planet full of active volcanoes. All the working spaceships were gone. All the humans were gone. The time lord was gone. The atmosphere dome was going to fail in a couple of years. He could still survived. If he rationed and dismantle this whole city and build a spaceship and find enough fuel, he could survive. He just hoped the ringing in his head would stop soon, so he can finally get to work.

**

The Doctor was in the TARDIS with her fam. They had stayed behind a day to help out the people of the planet. She had helped them build blueprints and they said they can take it from there. Yaz, Ryan and Graham were surprised to learn that the people of that planet were hundreds of years old. The more humans mingled; more they choose only dominant traits. The best of al kinds. Even by the time of the second steam age humans were living for four hundred years. She had explained so to them. Rose had asked if Casandra had mingled, could she have lived longer? Well yes, but sadly, Casandra refused to change.

Rose was telling them about something similar on her world. Not Pete’s world her world. Somehow that made her sad. She knew she had no right to. She was trying to figure out how to cross dimensions. Well at least she was pretending to. The gap from which Rose came wasn’t closed yet. If they were anywhere else in the universe, it would have been impossible for Rose to end up here. Only on that planet. She gave herself two hours. Two hours with Rose Tyler as part of her fam, in the TARDIS, those two hours were up now.

Rose was saying, “… yeah, but you see the Doctor, I mean my Doctor, he was just pretending to be dumb. And by the time the doppler realized he was a Time lord, it was too late.” So much about what she had said hurt, but the Doctor could say nothing. Dopplers didn’t exist in this universe, they were unique to Rose’s world. She had adventures of her own, with the Doctor in the TARDIS, and she is going to have so many more of those, and she is never going to be part of that. She had left so many people behind, they must have felt like this.

“Doctor” Graham asked, “that Nir.. whatever wasn’t really smart was he?”.

“No, he wasn’t.” she said. “He didn’t just consume information, he also consumed part of who they are, after a while it got all crowded. After a while he stopped getting cleaver and start getting dumber. He couldn’t compartmentalize. It all got mixed up. He had to struggle to even stay sane. The more he ate the dumber he got. He started lousing control over his slaves.”

“That’s why Mr. Shaha helped us.” Yaz said. “Yeah” she said. Rose was looking at her. time was up. They landed on Bad wolf’s bay. “Were are here” she announced a bit grimly. Rose tuned to Yaz. “I’m glad we met. I hope somehow, someway my path will cross with yours. all of yours.” she said gesturing to Ryan and Graham as well. She shook hands with Graham, high fived Ryan and hugged Yaz. Then she stepped out of the TARDIS, Doctor went out with her.

“What’s with Bad wolf bay?” Rose asked. “it’s just easiest place to land.” She said. “Do you compartmentalize?” Rose asked. “What do you mean?” Doctor asked. “All the lives you lived, do you put all that in different compartments? The leather jacket, and the trench coat, everything you were before we met and everything you were after we met? Do you put all that into compartments? Is that why all your friends become just story in the end?” Rose asked. “You can say that. But my mind can process so much more than any other species in the universe.”

“What happened to everyone Doctor?” Rose asked. She told her. as much as she knew. She didn’t knew how any of their story ended, she didn’t wanted to know. Well she wanted to know, but she couldn’t bring herself to peek, not in this life, not in any previous ones. They were happy, Donna and Martha and Sarah Jane and even Mickey. They were happy, just as Rose was happy.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever see you again, but you will see me. I remember you know. Every-time you went back in my past, I remember.” Rose said. “Oh you can’t possibally remember, one time you were eleven…” The Doctor began to say but Rose interrupted her, “and you were the librarian waring bowtie who helped me with my homework. You got one wrong by the way” she said. “I haven’t gone back to see you in this life Rose.” The Doctor said. Rose smiled. “I shouldn’t tell you, but nothing big happened. You came to my shop, a week before the day we met, I asked you if you needed something and you said you were just browsing.” Rose said. She had a mischievous look in her eyes. “and you were with a friend. Well I thought she was a friend. I was nineteen, and it was two thousand and five, so I thought she was your friend. I remember she was tugging your arm and you were smiling, just like he smiles, the other you I mean. You looked happy.” Rose told her. 

“I am going to loose everyone I meet. Everyone. That day, standing here not telling you how I felt and watching you kiss someone else, even if that someone else was a version of me, was really hard. What I had to do next with Donna was even harder. So I get where you are coming from Rose, I do, but I can’t do that again.” The Doctor said. “You can’t get your heart broken again.” Rose said, “Sara Jane told me that some people are worth getting your heart broken when I asked her advice about you. I decided a long time ago that you were worth every heartbreak. The question is, do you think Yaz is worth it?” The Doctor didn’t say anything. She wasn’t sure. But the future Rose described, she could see that happening. The TARDIS made a noise, their time was almost up. She needed to get going.

Rose took both of her hands in hers. They locked their fingers. “You will never be just a story Rose Tyler.” The Doctor said. Rose gave her a smile, but there was something sad about it. “Goodbye Doctor” she said. she leaned in and her lips lingered on the Doctors, just for a couple of seconds. The Doctor smiled. “What would your Doctor say?” she asked, but her tone was playful. “I mean you two are technically the same person aren’t you?”

“Take care Rose” the Doctor said. “You too Doctor. Take care, and have a fantastic life.” Rose Tyler said. Doctor had a smile on her face as she went back to the TARDIS, to her own universe, to her fam. She had a smile on her face as she went back to the possibility of seeing Rose at least one more time, to be possibility of a future with Yaz. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for baring with me and all of my typos. I hope you enjoyed reading it.  
> When you leave a comment, it brings satisfaction to my cold, dark soul.


End file.
